I think that using even a small practice bass amp sometimes is useful in addition to your current headphone playing. You'll hear the difference between the two and learn how to dial in tone from one to match the other and vice/versa.
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Newbie chasing tone. Am I crazy?
- Thread starter Bassic Needs
- Start date
Chasing tone is not crazy. It is all about tone. Chasing tone is a lifelong pursuit.
I also own a Sire V7, and the preamp in it is incredibly flexible. You should first learn how to use the preamp before trying other tone shaping options like pedals and software effect chains. You should be able to achieve some of the tones you posted through the preamp and maybe some different strings depending on which example. Also keep in mind these people are probably putting a bit of compression on their signal which is going to make it sound more punchy.
Agreed. Especially since the cited examples are rocking fodera, Fbass, Sandberg, etc. Its gonna be hard to replicate exactly without going down a rabbit hole of credit card purchases.
Absolutely nothing wrong with chasing tone. That'll be the rest of your life.
Look into the how technique wise as a first step!
Oh man. I think most people on here have been doing this for too long, check out the feedback numbers on some of these profiles! I'm guilty myself. Here's what's a decade and many thousands of dollars has taught me.
I've gone through about 50 basses in the last 15 years, maybe 10 Amps. Aside from finding what I liked, here is what you dont expect to learn.
1. Your favorite absolute best of all time tone set up can sound horrible in the wrong room. Dont go chasing a different setup because of this, learn to EQ in a live situation. Lost lots of money doing this. It's the band/room, not your gear.
2. Your best playing super slick primary weapon bass will be hard to play when you aren't paying attention to your technique. Dont go chasing a better bass because you aren't practicing or run into a new technique that shuts you down. Practice.
3. DO NOT think that a more expensive bass will play or sound better. After a certain price point all basses are as good as they can be on a structural level. I've played Foderas and Ken Smith's that I couldn't wait to put down and forget, and a Peavey that was incredible. It wasn't the bass quality, it was the way it was designed to sound and the shape and size of it.
Go try a ton of basses and find out what feels good, a 10000 dollar bass wont be the answer because it's worth 10k, your hands have to like it.
Oh yea, EQ and strings are 70 percent of the tone chase. That's it. I've had strings make or break a bass.
I've gone through about 50 basses in the last 15 years, maybe 10 Amps. Aside from finding what I liked, here is what you dont expect to learn.
1. Your favorite absolute best of all time tone set up can sound horrible in the wrong room. Dont go chasing a different setup because of this, learn to EQ in a live situation. Lost lots of money doing this. It's the band/room, not your gear.
2. Your best playing super slick primary weapon bass will be hard to play when you aren't paying attention to your technique. Dont go chasing a better bass because you aren't practicing or run into a new technique that shuts you down. Practice.
3. DO NOT think that a more expensive bass will play or sound better. After a certain price point all basses are as good as they can be on a structural level. I've played Foderas and Ken Smith's that I couldn't wait to put down and forget, and a Peavey that was incredible. It wasn't the bass quality, it was the way it was designed to sound and the shape and size of it.
Go try a ton of basses and find out what feels good, a 10000 dollar bass wont be the answer because it's worth 10k, your hands have to like it.
Oh yea, EQ and strings are 70 percent of the tone chase. That's it. I've had strings make or break a bass.
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Focus on technique, but also explore plug-ins to develop recording skills. There are a lot of free and cheap plugins available. People say that you can't get that tone without the amps and whatever they're using, yet we're listening to the videos with headphones so it is possible to get tone without amps. If you do decide to go into the gear arena to chase that elusive tone - and we've all done it, buy used and be patient. That way when you decide two weeks from now that's not the tone you want you can flip the gear for little loss. But nobody takes that advice. Heh.
Final solution it all depends on the player of the instrument that gets the tone.
It is really hard to get someplace new until you have a solid understanding of where you are, so practice a lot. If you are new you would be well served to find a good bass instructor who can not only help you avoid technique mistakes but can drastically shorten your learning curve in general. Practice is vital but practice alone does not make perfect, practice makes permanent. If you learn and practice poor technique until it’s baked in, it is much much harder to unlearn the bad and relearn the good than to just get it right the first time.
But yeah, become a well grounded bass player first, then become a tone chaser. Doing it that way will make it an actual search rather than a series of guesses based on vids and clips, and trust me on this, there is no substitute for your ears when it comes to all things tone. Clips and vids can give you a general idea but until you develop your ear, you will spend more time chasing tone than making music
But yeah, become a well grounded bass player first, then become a tone chaser. Doing it that way will make it an actual search rather than a series of guesses based on vids and clips, and trust me on this, there is no substitute for your ears when it comes to all things tone. Clips and vids can give you a general idea but until you develop your ear, you will spend more time chasing tone than making music
As everyone else mentioned before me, it's a 2 factor issue and I'll address both of them and try to be concise about it:
1. Technique - a part of the reason you might not be happy with your sound is that you're aiming to sound like people who've been doing it for far longer. That's ok, that's how we all start. There are almost no rules of thumb (no pun intended) when it comes to bass technique but there are a few pointers that are known to make sound production cleaner and easier:
* With your left hand, press the string as close as you can to the frerwire to get clean tone with lots of sustain. Try to press 180 degrees to the fretboard and not to the sides so that you put the least amount of energy needed and can lift your finger quickly to play the next note.
* With your right hand - experiment with where you pluck the string and how much "meat" you put under the string - the more finger surface touching the string the beefier if a sound you'll get.
2. Sound processing - for years I wasn't liking the sound coming out through the headphones in my recording setup. Eventhough ultimately the finished recording sounded great, it felt like the instrument isn't responding right to my playing if that makes sense. Any decent bass amp will probably be easier to get to sound "right" than your recording setup, which is not to say your setup isn't good, it is just not made especially for bass.
One thing that helped me improve the situation a lot is using a DAW to process the sound and then running the bass through the stock bass amp simulator and a bit of overdrive. You'll probably wanna set the gain on your focusrite interface lower than you're used to and then compensate with volume coming out of the DAW. It'll help if you can mute the output coming straight from the hardware on your interface mixing software so all you hear is what's coming from the DAW.
I can't attest for other DAW software but the stock stuff on logic x does a great job. If you'd like I can share with you a template channel strip for that and you're welcome to tweak it the way you want. Anyway, as long as you have a DAW with that sorta plugin it'll be an effective and free solution.
1. Technique - a part of the reason you might not be happy with your sound is that you're aiming to sound like people who've been doing it for far longer. That's ok, that's how we all start. There are almost no rules of thumb (no pun intended) when it comes to bass technique but there are a few pointers that are known to make sound production cleaner and easier:
* With your left hand, press the string as close as you can to the frerwire to get clean tone with lots of sustain. Try to press 180 degrees to the fretboard and not to the sides so that you put the least amount of energy needed and can lift your finger quickly to play the next note.
* With your right hand - experiment with where you pluck the string and how much "meat" you put under the string - the more finger surface touching the string the beefier if a sound you'll get.
2. Sound processing - for years I wasn't liking the sound coming out through the headphones in my recording setup. Eventhough ultimately the finished recording sounded great, it felt like the instrument isn't responding right to my playing if that makes sense. Any decent bass amp will probably be easier to get to sound "right" than your recording setup, which is not to say your setup isn't good, it is just not made especially for bass.
One thing that helped me improve the situation a lot is using a DAW to process the sound and then running the bass through the stock bass amp simulator and a bit of overdrive. You'll probably wanna set the gain on your focusrite interface lower than you're used to and then compensate with volume coming out of the DAW. It'll help if you can mute the output coming straight from the hardware on your interface mixing software so all you hear is what's coming from the DAW.
I can't attest for other DAW software but the stock stuff on logic x does a great job. If you'd like I can share with you a template channel strip for that and you're welcome to tweak it the way you want. Anyway, as long as you have a DAW with that sorta plugin it'll be an effective and free solution.
Since you are new at the game, I wouldn't worry about tone for now. I am a strong believer that tone comes from your hands. So I would concentrate on your playing technique you will find that in the future "your" tone will emerge, after that time you can either accept it or use a bunch of different things to change it and chase that tone in your head. But most with experience will tell you, you can let someone else play your rig nothing changed and it will sound totally different than when you play through it. I had chased the tone in my head for many, many should I add one more? ha ha ha years and when the smoke and mirrors are gone, I still sound like that kid that started playing electric bass 50 years ago 
good luck and stick with it. RTS
good luck and stick with it. RTS
After 26 years of playing ,I feel i sound the same , what ever bass I play...
Chasing is fun tho!
Btw; There's no single coil P video up there...?!
Chasing is fun tho!
Btw; There's no single coil P video up there...?!
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First off, focus more on your playing and less on your tone.
But if you want a sound similar to what Kinga gets on that video, I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest some compression and a touch of overdrive might help.
But, here's a caution: if there are two rabbit holes in the TB universe, it's compressors and dirt pedals... don't get sucked into a never-ending cycle of pedal flipping. Mainstay companies like MXR make perfectly good, affordable gear - there's no need to chase some boutique box with capacitors made of Unobtanium.
Have fun!
But if you want a sound similar to what Kinga gets on that video, I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest some compression and a touch of overdrive might help.
But, here's a caution: if there are two rabbit holes in the TB universe, it's compressors and dirt pedals... don't get sucked into a never-ending cycle of pedal flipping. Mainstay companies like MXR make perfectly good, affordable gear - there's no need to chase some boutique box with capacitors made of Unobtanium.
Have fun!
I like different basses for the sounds they produce but I would say that at this time, the Jazz bass is my favorite.
I do enjoy the P bass sound as well but I also like the Musicman. It's hard not to like most bass sounds honestly.
My first bass purchase was a SBMM 5-string and that was probably a mistake. I like the sound but it's too much for me starting off. I realized this error and went out and bought a Sire V7 4-string. It's a little easier to keep track of where I am and I don't have to worry about a wider neck or notes ringing out as much.
I should mention that I am not 100% new to an instrument as I have played some guitar over the years. Mostly strumming and bar chords though. I never took a lesson, I just played be ear. I feel that, if anything, I could take bad habits over to the bass and so I am trying to go back to square one and learn things properly.
As much as I have tried to love the guitar, I can't help but feel that it's not my instrument. When I pick up the bass or watch a bass video, I feel this is where I belong. But unlike the path I took for guitar, I want to start with a strong foundation and build to become a decent player. I think this revelation has come with maturity and the readiness to put in the commitment necessary to succeed.
I do enjoy the P bass sound as well but I also like the Musicman. It's hard not to like most bass sounds honestly.
My first bass purchase was a SBMM 5-string and that was probably a mistake. I like the sound but it's too much for me starting off. I realized this error and went out and bought a Sire V7 4-string. It's a little easier to keep track of where I am and I don't have to worry about a wider neck or notes ringing out as much.
I should mention that I am not 100% new to an instrument as I have played some guitar over the years. Mostly strumming and bar chords though. I never took a lesson, I just played be ear. I feel that, if anything, I could take bad habits over to the bass and so I am trying to go back to square one and learn things properly.
As much as I have tried to love the guitar, I can't help but feel that it's not my instrument. When I pick up the bass or watch a bass video, I feel this is where I belong. But unlike the path I took for guitar, I want to start with a strong foundation and build to become a decent player. I think this revelation has come with maturity and the readiness to put in the commitment necessary to succeed.
I totally agree with this. The best tone I've ever achieved was strait into a mixer, head phones, fresh strings and all pots wide open on a PJ. No eq or compression what so ever. No matter how much monkeying around you do at home, it usually sounds different in the mix.
Since your a "newbie", chasing tone right now is ill advised. As you get better with practice, your technique will get better and "your tone" will change.
Headphones won’t give you what you’re looking for, but they are quiet. Go try some amps out
In my opinion yes - not "crazy", it's actually very understandable and commendable to be curious and motivated to improve your tone, but as a beginner, avoid the temptation to spend lots on gear until you've mastered the gear you have. There are a lot of options in the Sire tone cupboard, even if you're just plugged straight into your amp. You should be focusing on learning music, and learning the gear you have will happen along the way. Learn songs, lots of them, and get playing with other people as soon as you can - especially if they are a lot more experienced than you, if you can find any available. Learn to read chord charts, learn to lock into the kick and snare drum, learn basslines note for note, develop your ear.
Your tastes in tone and gear *will* definitely change over time - some preferences may develop or lose strength, you may abandon old preferences, or you may develop whole new ones. That actually won't stop, for your whole life, but for now you definitely have more important stuff to focus on than gear. No offense, I don't know you or your abilities at all, I just know that's how things are for people who are beginners.
EDIT: The Kinga Glyk video was really cool, I'm not familiar with her, but she is really talented, well-practiced. This is what I am talking about. She's using a passive Jazz, with a bit of emphasis on the bridge pickup and I'd say tone knob is at 10 or near there. Note where her right hand is placed in relation to the pickups. With your Sire, switch it to passive and play around with the bridge pickup on full, blending in the neck as desired. Try to use a spare finger on either hand to mute the strings after you play a note, so that it "sings" for just the right amount of time - if that amount of time is really brief, you can make notes pop and burp like this. Muting is an important technique to learn, and practicing it takes time. Go practice.
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Cave Puppy
"Humph Bo, he's wond!" - John Lennon
I've been playing for almost 41 years and I'm still chasing tone! Good luck.
I agree with much that has been said already, but will add on a purely practical level: switching on that preamp on your bass will allow you to get a much more satisfying tone with the gear you already have (those Sires have some serious tone shaping capabilities), so you should probably start there to get yourself closer to what you're after. Yes: practice, practice, practice; but practicing is a lot more fun when you like how you sound. Just try to spend more time with your fingers on your strings than on your knobs, haha.
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